What we’ve watched so far…

Because we’ve just got around to starting our blog, we haven’t covered any of the previous films in detail on here. But if you’d like to get up to speed with our eclectic tastes, here’s a rear projection of the past few months of movies. Curious about our views on each? Check out the podcast!

Week 45: One of Our Aircraft is Missing (Michael Powell, 1942). After a bomber team crash land in Nazi-occupied Holland, they have to win over the sceptical locals before pulling off a daring escape with admirable derring-do.

Week 44: Summerfield (Ken Hannam, 1977). A substitute teacher has a hard time figuring out why his mischievous pupil’s mum doesn’t want him around. Could it have something to do with creepy-as-heck John Waters?

Week 43: The Landlord (Hal Ashby, 1970). Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed scion of a wealthy family goes on a selflessly optimistic quest to gentrify a modest African-American neighbourhood—while falling for a couple of his tenants. Would you believe that it all goes horribly wrong?

Week 42: School for Scoundrels (Robert Hamer, 1960). In a wish-fulfilment fantasy for the less testosterone-worshipping among us, Ian Carmichael serves the dastardly Terry-Thomas endless plates of ill-gotten hard cheese in an effort to win the heart of the lovely (and extremely tolerant) Janette Scott.

Week 41: Trouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph, 1985). In which Kris Kristofferson burns off some existential angst in the cryptically named Rain City by building miniature models of his surroundings.

Week 40: Death Laid An Egg (Giulio Questi, 1968). Gina Lollobrigida, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Ewa Aulin go looking for a narrative through line, stopping off at giallo tropes, social satire, wonky dubbing, and modern mechanisation.

Week 39: The Driver’s Seat (aka Identikit) (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1974). Elizabeth Taylor, goddess of 20th Century cinema, wanders through Rome in this nasty little adaptation of Muriel’s Spark brilliant icepick of a novella, negotiating Eros and Thanatos while looking for something or someone to make it all make sense.

Week 38: Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002). Incredibly virtuoso work from Our Man Brian, as Rebecca Romijn’s falsely coloured eyes behold the magnificent Antonio Banderas, building him up just to put him down.

Week 37: Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970). Infatuation becomes obsession as John Moulder-Brown takes a stunning Jane Asher on a trip to the dangerous half of the pool.

Week 36: 3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977). Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek get their Bergman on across the desert plains and empty swimming pools of Southern California. Spacek, in her second appearance on the pod (but surely not the last!), becomes a little obsessed with a socially maladroit Shelly Duvall.

Week 35: Split Image (Ted Kotcheff, 1982). An impressionable teen gets cultified in pursuit of Karen Allen. Who could blame him? Peter Fonda plays a menacing hippy.

Week 34: One From The Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1981). Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest love, feud and dance through a Las Vegas simulacrum in Coppola’s infamous studio-destroying bomb and reclaimed masterpiece.

Week 33: Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978). Nature picks a fight with two unhappily married Aussie campers. Confirms every suspicion about the outdoors the largely urban elitist podcast holds.

Week 32: Fail Safe (Sidney Lumet, 1964). Nuclear annihilation, small rooms, sweaty actors, stark black-and-white cinematography. To paraphrase George Constanza, this one’s got it all baby.

Week 31: The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (Bruce Beresford, 1972). A nuanced study of intellectual exchange and cross-cultural rapprochement, fuelled by numerous tubes of Fosters Lager.

Week 30: The Bride Wore Black (Francois Truffaut, 1968). Catherine Deneuve puts five deadly ne’er-do-wells on the wedding list.

Week 29: Somewhere in the Night (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1946). John Hodiak tries to find himself …. but not in the relaxing sense.

Week 28: Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970). A crime film with an extra dose of misery.

Week 27: Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John Hancock, 1971). In which the titular character has about a fun time as could be expected.

Week 26: All Night Long (Basil Dearden, 1962). Patrick McGoohan excels at his two passions: zany drumming and destroying people’s lives.

Week 25: It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934). Nothing goes right for W.C. Fields, who’s just trying to get on with his day without causing a fuss.

Week 24: Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1975). Sissy Spacek is served up to Lee Marvin in a dish for the ages.

Week 23: Captain Kidd (Rowland V. Lee, 1945). Charles Laughton as the least-successfully reformed pirate in history.

Week 22: Carry On Cleo (Gerald Thomas, 1964). ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!’ What more do you need?

Week 21: One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961). Made when it was OK to laugh at the Cold War; released when it wasn’t.

Week 20: Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976). A coupla bums stumble ‘round a never-less-picturesque Big Apple in full social breakdown mode.

Week 19: Intimidation (Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1960). Who could’ve anticipated that robbing a high-security bank would be a bad idea?

Week 18: The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953). Charting Edmund O’Brien’s tragic involvement in one of cinema’s most egregious double-dipping incidents.

Week 17: Matewan (John Sayles, 1987). In which the spot price of coal garners more attention than a Liberal Party fundraising luncheon.

Week 16: Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974). Count Dracula realises he should’ve gone with the comprehensive healthcare plan instead.

Week 15: Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957). Barbara Stanwyck’s tough-as-nails rancher falls in love with Barry Sullivan, the ultimate sturdy plank.

Week 14a: BONUS American Wake Edition. In which Tim, Adam and Anthony share their scattered insights on everything from Citizen Kane to The Manchurian Candidate.

Week 14: This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963). Richard Harris participates in a series of cold and punishing scrums — and that’s just with the landlady.

Week 13: Convoy (Sam Peckinpah, 1978). Kris Kristofferson steers a group of hard drinkin’, hard fightin’, inaccurately steerin’ truckers around America’s dustier corners.

Week 12: The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 1970). Peter O’Toole tries his hand at being the Son of God before settling into something a little more comfortable.

Week 11: The Greeks Had a Word for Them (Lowell Sherman, 1932). Three merry conscience-free lasses cut a bloody path through NYC’s eligible bachelors.

Week 10: Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1970). Rod Steiger pre-emptively undoes the damage Ridley Scott did to the irritable Corsican’s cinematic reputation.

Week 9: Rat Fink (James Landis, 1965). Drifter with a guitar on his back heads into a sleepy midwest town, which never knows what hit it.

Week 8: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951). Ava Gardner sets every nearby male’s hearts a-flutter, including your three loyal podcasters.

Week 7: Bunny Lake is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965). In which Carol Lynley makes some questionable babysitting choices.

Week 6: Magic (Richard Attenborough, 1978). Between directing A Bridge Too Far and Ghandi, Richard helms a psycho ventriloquist horror movie.

Week 5: Wild in the Streets (Barry Shear, 1968). Political comedy about rich kids taking over US politics, with zany results!

Week 4: City of Fear (Irving Lerner, 1959). Vince Edwards plays a hot grotty convict with a jumbo vial of Cobalt-60.

Week 3: The Haunted Palace (Roger Corman, 1963). Two versions of Vincent Price go crazy in a haunted house.

Week 2: Give My Regards to Broad Street (Peter Webb, 1984). A comedy in which Paul McCartney plays a musician. Not self-indulgent in the slightest.

Week 1: Caveman (Carl Gottlieb, 1981). A comedy in which Ringo Starr plays a caveman. As funny as it sounds.